I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Did My Tax Dollars Pay For This?!?

What the hell?

This is not a use of "new media" to inform the people of this state - it's propaganda, straight up, and it's outrageous if one dime of taxpayer money was used to produce it.

The media shills kissing Christie's keister at the end is particularly galling - this is shameless self-promotion at a level that would make Newt Gingrich blush. But I'm also really annoyed by the factoids, presented in dramatic animated kerning, that are given here with no attribution whatsoever. "Failing schools"? By whose account?

Anything this nakedly political should tell you who exactly funded it. If "Reform NJ Now" or some other slush fund paid for what is a blatant early campaign ad, we should know that, and it should be in the credits. If this was paid for by the state, there should be hearings. Not one penny of tax money should ever go toward an exercise in narcissism like this.

This guy is the biggest media whore in Republican politics today - and that's really saying something. His Twitter page is full of media appearance announcements. He's been on Morning Joe so many times that I'll bet Scarborough made him a custom chair.

Hey, NJ political reporters, here's a thought: compare Christie's media appearances over the last eight months to ANY eight months outside of an election by any other NJ governor. I'll bet he doubles the next closest one.